AutoCAD 2000: A Paper Space Odyssey

I'll be the first to admit that
Paper Space is one of the most valuable features in AutoCAD, but it's also the
most underused. It's never been easy to learn, with so many rules and confusing
system variables to follow. Those who have conquered the complex world of Paper
Space become true believers, vowing never to go back to living solely in Model
Space. By far my most popular Circles & Lines columns were, "Lost
in Paper Space (Part 1)" and "Lost
in Paper Space (The Sequel)". To this day, I still
get frequent requests for them. At Autodesk University you'll also find the Paper
Space classes packed to the gills with anxious users trying to fully grasp all
the concepts involved.

AutoCAD 2000 has come a long way in making Paper Space more palatable. There
are several new enhancements that will make it easy for even the novice user
to jump from Model Space to Paper Space. This month, I'm going to peruse many
of these new features to ensure you're not missing out on the goodies. I am
going to assume a base knowledge of Paper Space in this column; see the two columns above.
Although the columns are old, the general concepts ring true today.

How Easy It Gets

Figure 1.

First out the gate you'll find that it's a heck of a lot easier to enter the world
of Paper Space. No more setting Tilemode to 0 (I'm sure you'll miss that!). Now
it's a simple pick of the tabs in the lower-left hand corner of the drawing editor,
as shown in Figure 1. The Layout tabs are used to change over to Paper Space.
In AutoCAD 2000, you can have as many Paper Space Layouts as you want (unlike
previous releases). You can also add, delete and rename the layout tabs by right
clicking on them, as shown in Figure 2. In fact, let's quickly look at those options:

From template... allows you to copy layouts from existing template
files (DWT or DWG). The Layout geometry (Paper Space objects) and viewports
will be inserted into the new layout. No Model Space objects from the template
drawing are imported.

Delete allows you to delete one or more layout tabs.

Rename allows you to change the name of an existing layout tab.

Move or Copy causes an additional dialog to display-as shown in Figure
3-that allows you to copy or move the selected layout. This dialog is a little
tricky to negotiate, just realize that the tab you right click on is the tab
that is going to be doing the moving. To move the selected tab to the end just

Figure 3.

pick the move-to-end option in the dialog. If you choose the copy option, you'll
probably also need to Rename it to get the desired result.

Select All Layouts highlights all of the Layout tabs. When you reenter
the shortcut menu, you'll find that you can copy all the layouts, delete all
the layouts and so forth (perhaps not the most useful option).

If you add too many layouts or use really long names, you'll find that you
need to negotiate through the tabs by using the arrows to the left of the Model
Space tab. Note that you'll soon discover that selecting any of the tabs forces
a regeneration (Doh!).

Figure 4.

You'll also find that you can create new layouts from the pulldown menus by
using Insert=>Layout. In this menu you'll find the new Layout Wizard, as
shown in Figure 4. The Layout Wizard takes you step by step through creating
a new layout, and it offers complete plotter information as well as instructions
on how to insert a title block, define viewports and so on. New users may find
this route easier to take. I have found that veteran users often don't have
the patience to use AutoCAD wizards (email me if you disagree).

When I first launched AutoCAD 2000, I was surprised to find myself faced with
the Page Setup dialog for plotting when I selected a layout tab. You may choose
to answer the Page Setup dialog to set up your page size, orientation, plot
scale, and so on right up front. Or, you can dismiss the dialog and set it up
manually-whichever you prefer. You'll also find that by default one viewport
appears in all new layouts. This really makes it easy on new users since they
can pick a layout tab and automatically see the model through the viewport.

Figure 5.

You don't intuitively know that you need to use the MVIEW command to insert
Paper Space viewports to see your model, but now it happens automatically. You
veteran users will probably prefer to turn this feature off and construct your
own viewports. The Display tab in the Options dialog has devoted the lower left-hand
corner of the dialog to setting up your layout environment, as shown in Figure
5, which shows the settings I prefer.

Non-Rectangular Viewports
One of the top wishlist items for several years has been the ability to create
non-rectangular viewports. Over the years, users discovered all kinds of inventive
ways to hook many viewports together, such as using wipeouts and so on to create
the various shaped viewports needed. However, now you have two new options in
the MVIEW command that make creating viewports of any shape a breeze.

When you take a look at the MVIEW command, you'll see the two new options:
Polygonal and Object. Let's review each option:

Polygonal is used to manually draw a viewport comprised of straight

Figure 6.

and/or arc segments. Figure 6 shows a simple polygonal viewport made up of straight
segments. Note that assigning a non-continuous linetype to a non-rectangular
viewport could result in the irregular clipping of Model Space geometry inside
the viewport, or, even worse, it may cause AutoCAD to become unstable (so don't
do that!).

Specify start point:
Specify next point or [Arc/Close/Length/Undo]: a
Enter an arc boundary option
[Angle/CEnter/CLose/ Direction/Line/Radius/Second pt/Undo/Endpoint of arc]
<Endpoint>:

This looks much like the PLINE command except that you'll need a minimum of
three segments to make your viewport.

Object allows you to select an existing closed object, and AutoCAD
will clip the viewport to the object. You can even make a self-intersecting
viewport by using a polyline.

So what if you already have a viewport from Release 14 that you'd like to
clip to a non-rectangular object? It's simple! Draw your new shape, highlight
the original viewport, right click on it and you'll see an option called Viewport

Figure 7.

Clip. Simply select the new shape, and, Presto, the existing viewport will take
on the new shape.

You'll also notice in the shortcut menu one of my favorite additions to AutoCAD
2000-the ability to lock the display within the viewports. How many times have
you gone to the trouble to set your scale factor only to mess it up by zooming?
Setting the Display Locking to ON will lock the current zoom factor into place.
Figure 7 shows the shortcut menu with these two new additions.

I'm not a big toolbar fan, but I am a big fan of the new Viewports toolbar.
As much as I'm sure you all love setting the viewport scale factor by going
into the ZOOM command and setting the XP factor (1/4" = 1' would be 1/48X),

Figure 8.

you'll be happy to know there's a much easier method. Figure 8 shows the wonderful
drop-down list that makes it simple to set your scale factor.

Awesome Express Tools
There are a couple of awesome Express Tools you'll want to try out as well. Change
Space (CHSPACE) makes it easy to transfer Paper Space objects into Model Space
and vice versa. Now it's easy to transfer those Paper Space dimensions back into
Model Space where they belong! (in my opinion).

ALIGNSPACE allows you to align objects in Paper Space up with objects in Model
Space-a feat that is nearly impossible without this Express Tool. Neither one
of these tools is part of the sampling that comes with AutoCAD 2000. You'll
need to download them from the Web at www.autodesk.com/expresstools (they're
free!).

So what happens if you save back to Release 14? What happens to your extra
layouts (since R14 only supports one) and those nonrectangular viewports? Well,
here's the scoop. When saving back to R14, AutoCAD will save Model Space and
the current layout. If the drawing was in Model Space when you executed the
SAVEAS, the last accessed layout will be saved. This could mean that you'd need
to make multiple saves to multiple files to save all of your viewports.

For those of you in the VIP program, you're fortunate to have an Express Tool
called LAYERMERGE. This tool will save all the layouts back to Release 14, assigning
each layout to it's own view. It's a lifesaver routine to have around. Those
of you who are not in the VIP program should keep a close watch on the Express
tool Web site as I'm sure it will eventually be available for download (I'm
crossing my fingers).

What is going to happen to your Non-rectangular viewports? They'll be transformed
back to rectangular viewports along with the boundary objects used to create

Figure 9.

them initially. Figure 9 shows you the result of saving back the non-rectangular
viewports in Figure 8. When you bring the drawing back to AutoCAD 2000, you
will get all of your layouts as well as your non-rectangular viewports back.
So, they aren't gone for good, and they do a good job of making the round trip.

Well, that's a quick tour through many of the new additions to Paper Space
in AutoCAD 2000. For those of you who are still floundering with the whole Paper
Space concept (you're not alone!), enough emails might prompt me to rewrite
my Lost in Paper Space columns and update them.

Until next month...

About the Author: Lynn Allen

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen guides you through a different AutoCAD feature in every edition of her popular "Circles and Lines" tutorial series. For even more AutoCAD how-to, check out Lynn's quick tips in the Cadalyst Video Gallery. Subscribe to Cadalyst's free Tips & Tools Weekly e-newsletter and we'll notify you every time a new video tip is published. All exclusively from Cadalyst!Follow Lynn on Twitter